Mikoroshini, Makangira, and Oyster Bay, Tanzania Hanna Nassif and Upanga, Tanzania --- Lomas de Chapultepec, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City San Miguel Teotongo, Iztapalapa, Mexico City ---- Urban trees reveal income inequality Wealthy cities seem to have it all. Expansive, well-manicured parks. Fine dining. Renowned orchestras and theaters. More trees. Wait, trees? I’m afraid so. Research published a few years ago shows a tight relationship between per capita income and forest cover. The study’s authors tallied total forest cover for 210 cities over 100,000 people in the contiguous United States using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s natural resource inventory and satellite imagery. They also gathered economic data, including income, land prices, and disposable income. They found that for every 1 percent increase in per capita income, demand for forest cover increased by 1.76 percent. But when income dropped by the same amount, demand decreased by 1.26 percent. That’s a pretty tight correlation. The researchers reason that wealthier cities can afford more trees, both on private and public property. The well-to-do can afford larger lots, which in turn can support more trees. On the public side, cities with larger tax bases can afford to plant and maintain more trees. Given the recent problems New York City has had with its aging trees dropping limbs on unsuspecting passers-by—and the lawsuits that result—it’s no surprise that poorer cities would keep lean tree inventories. But what disturbs me is that the study’s authors say the demand curve they see for tree cover is more typical of demand for luxury goods than necessities. That’s too bad. It’s easy to see trees as a luxury when a city can barely keep its roads and sewers in working order, but that glosses over the many benefits urban trees provide. They shade houses in the summer, reducing cooling bills. They scrub the air of pollution, especially of the particulate variety, which in many poor neighborhoods is responsible for increased asthma rates and other health problems. They also reduce stress, which has its own health benefits. Large, established trees can even fight crime. Fortunately, many cities understand the value trees bring to their cities. New York City is aiming to double the number of trees it has to 1 million. Chicago has planted over 600,000 in the last twenty years.¹ And London has been working to get 20,000 new trees in the ground before it hosts the Olympics. But those cities are relatively wealthy. It’s the poorer ones that probably need trees the most but are the least able to plant and maintain them. The Arbor Day Foundation is a great resource in those cases, but like many non-profits, it is stretched too thin. Compounding the inequality is the fact that most tree planting programs are local. Urban forestry has sailed largely under the federal government’s radar. The U.S. Forest Service does have a urban and community forestry program, but is woefully underfunded, having only $900,000 to disperse in grants. Bolstering that program could help struggling cities plant the trees they need. After all, trees and the benefits they provide are more than just a luxury. Wealthy cities seem to have it all. Expansive, well-manicured parks. Fine dining. Renowned orchestras and theaters. More trees. Wait, trees? I’m afraid so. Research published a few years ago shows a tight relationship between per capita income and forest cover. The study’s authors tallied total forest cover for 210 cities over 100,000 people in the contiguous United States using the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s natural resource inventory and satellite imagery. They also gathered economic data, including income, land prices, and disposable income. They found that for every 1 percent increase in per capita income, demand for forest cover increased by 1.76 percent. But when income dropped by the same amount, demand decreased by 1.26 percent. That’s a pretty tight correlation. The researchers reason that wealthier cities can afford more trees, both on private and public property. The well-to-do can afford larger lots, which in turn can support more trees. On the public side, cities with larger tax bases can afford to plant and maintain more trees. Given the recent problems New York City has had with its aging trees dropping limbs on unsuspecting passers-by—and the lawsuits that result—it’s no surprise that poorer cities would keep lean tree inventories. But what disturbs me is that the study’s authors say the demand curve they see for tree cover is more typical of demand for luxury goods than necessities. That’s too bad. It’s easy to see trees as a luxury when a city can barely keep its roads and sewers in working order, but that glosses over the many benefits urban trees provide. They shade houses in the summer, reducing cooling bills. They scrub the air of pollution, especially of the particulate variety, which in many poor neighborhoods is responsible for increased asthma rates and other health problems. They also reduce stress, which has its own health benefits. Large, established trees can even fight crime. Fortunately, many cities understand the value trees bring to their cities. New York City is aiming to double the number of trees it has to 1 million. Chicago has planted over 600,000 in the last twenty years.¹ And London has been working to get 20,000 new trees in the ground before it hosts the Olympics. But those cities are relatively wealthy. It’s the poorer ones that probably need trees the most but are the least able to plant and maintain them. The Arbor Day Foundation is a great resource in those cases, but like many non-profits, it is stretched too thin. Compounding the inequality is the fact that most tree planting programs are local. Urban forestry has sailed largely under the federal government’s radar. The U.S. Forest Service does have a urban and community forestry program, but is woefully underfunded, having only $900,000 to disperse in grants. Bolstering that program could help struggling cities plant the trees they need. After all, trees and the benefits they provide are more than just a luxury. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204607002174 ----- interesting study.

just finished watching her speech. couple of points to make. 1. she's made several major generalisations. chief among these, is that she's, on more than one occasion, subsumed all somalis as being war-torn areas and living in conditions of squalor. she is wrong about this. somalis have taken different trajectories in their attempts to establish peace and prosperity and as such careful considerations must all times be made to differentiate the realities on the ground. this idea of all Somalis and the Former Somalia being equated with South-Central Somalia as it once was, is again wrong. it seems like she has no idea of the factual situation. i'm not surprised by this laakin, as yet another academic makes empty statements of the populist kind, in the name of mashruuc'ising and indeed denigrating the collective will of all Somalis. also, why is she not acknowledging all the progress being made? what is the need to remain pessimistic? 2. she's right about the different interests of the West and other powers for the Former Somalia. for far too long, too many have meddled in our internal affairs. 3. she's also right about the solutions to these varying issues being resolved by Somalis and Somalis alone.

this is an interesting development........i hope this census takes place sooner rather than later. they've already started similar efforts in hargeisa and across the country. but i suspect the figures will be over-enumerated. already H-town is estimated to have a population of 850,000 to 1.4million. the guy doing the count for my area had a flashy IPAD-like little gadget. when he asked how many people lived in K27 183, my family owned property, i said 8. of course, that was a little lie. i live alone but the other 7 are in the UK. maybe 20% of the houses in Hargeisa are rented which means population figures will reflected this, too.

Carafaat;918575 wrote: Jimce wanaagsan ya Alpha. How was your day? have you been to the friday prayer? ya arafat! my dearest of inaadeeros:D. my day was spent attending a very important meeting. i received the invite last week to attending a reer mohamud event. it was excellent. these reer mohamud folks are getting serious, inaadeero. they've got a small organisation and you should have seen how passionate they were about expanding their plans. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. it would've been great had you been there. a pathetic little clan like reer mohamud plotting and planing?......and some thought the resurrection of jesus moses was spectacular... they'd mentioned your clan several time as an example worthy of following. i didn't agree with that...laakin. i had to remind them dee........ LOOOOOOOOOOL.

oba hiloowlow;918711 wrote: Thanks bro, yeah exactly. LOL i wonder that my family will say when they hear im dating an ethiopian. i had the impression your family were quite liberal? but, in any case, its important you keep this 'love affair' to yourself for the time being. plus, you could always use 'the family' as an excuse when you want to get out of spending time with her LOOOOOOOOOL....you could say your grandfather was killed in the 77' war and your family are sworn enemies of ethiopia and ethiopians. make this jacyl into a mashruuc brov LOOOOOOOOL. women love this romeo-juliet type stuff.....

Haatu;918643 wrote: erm, maybe the tahriibing maids are leaving with more than just their clothes LOOOOOOL@Haatu, i haven't had a maid since 1st JAN. Suad, my favourite and probably the greatest maid, i'll ever come across was someone i trusted. plus i asked if i could keep at least one of her colourful dirac sheeds....for ever lasting memory. .....once she bought one of those fake-chinese-phone-i mobiles and she'd asked if i could add some music from 56,000+ songs. i did so and it was always nice to hear her listening to my favourite somali songs. LOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

that sounds excellent. very happy to hear you had a fantastic time. what's your plan now? make sure you don't seem to keen at this early stage. in the next couple of days try to calm her expectations down gently. you went through all that effort and she's probably impressed by your attempts but as i always say: create value through scarcity.

Oba, can you tell me what happened last night? how was your valentine's date?

just came back from an important gathering. the gathering was very important and most of those who attended were high profile figures.

oba hiloowlow;918538 wrote: Dhaylo iga dheh did you get any last night, then? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

SS, you're a Nazi bully. i've seen your events and they're far from perfect. in fact, their organisational structure is pathetic. STOP preaching to us. Al.

jimco wanaagsan or wacaan akhyarta....

an innuendo of the worse kind. please edit this thread.

horse meat anyone?

i'm out guys.

Alpha Blondy;917700 wrote: i still haven't found the phone and i've spoken to all the people i was with yesterday. i trust my friends and i highly doubt they would've stolen the phone but had i been a little less pretentious with the phone then i suppose they've returned it. but that i was constantly advertising the latest app i downloaded and the constant praises of its picture quality, makes me think twice about whether they've stolen it, after all. my phone was probably ranked 4th/10 after the iphone, the nokia and the LG but you can't blame me for thinking the worse. many admired its quality in the past..... so....i'm resigned to the fact my phone is gone. i'm so disappointed walahi. you can't even begin to imagine. worse still is this negligent semi-vacant attitude of Alpha these days. i've lost an expensive glasses just recently, also my ring which i've had for 7 years and a few other things too.......i don't know what's wrong with me? how did i become so silly in losing things? you CANNOT replaces certain things, you know. my ring was something i'd planned to give to my first born son but its gone now, isn't it?

nuune;918419 wrote: Your last post kills everything you have being writing for the past few years, thanks for the read. maxaad ka hadlaysa inaadeero Nunne? maxaad ka wada 'kills'?

underdog;918315 wrote: I'm staring to think you're more of an elitist bureaucrat rather than a man of the people....who am I kidding, I've always thought that. the "delegates" have views contrary to the mainstream (the general public)... by definition, delegates are supposed to be appointed representatives of the people so that they may voice the concerns of the mainstream/people in a single voice within a decision-making forum. If these so-called delegates have views other than those of the mainstream, all but Imperial elitist logic would disqualify them as representatives of the people. "others" have been expressing themselves here for well over a decade. Maybe you should just skip the formalities and organize SOL presidential elections. If you win you can make all the speeches you like....I take that back, we're already there. i don't understand what you're getting at here. could you please explain......? as for the legitimacy of Alpha, i finished 3rd in last years SOL Awards.

just chilling here in the African night and wondering what i'm going to do tomorrow morning i/s..... a) sleep b) wake up early to make laxoox c) go for a 6AM jog d) be hit by the asteroid predicted by Nuune

Tallaabo;918413 wrote: I thought we had our own Cilmi Boodhari day. eerday is Cilmi Boodhari day! ya dig Tal? i would love to play C.B in the official movie.

Day 4 of Shirweynihii SOL after yesterdays chaotic anti-climatic finish to proceedings, a number of excellent ideas were put forth by the delegates. again, i would like to remind the delegates, this is a conference dedicated to affairs of SOL and i would like to further add despite the slow pace of momentum, things are now picking up and there'll be plenty of time for further discussions. i think the organisers and indeed the delegates of the shirweyne have done an excellent job thus far. yet, as we make more concerted efforts to address all the ideas put forth, i think a polite reminder of house-keeping rules maybe necessary here. in yesterdays debrief meeting, we received several complaints from the suggestion box (placed to the right of the venue hall entry). these complaints will be duly addressed by the complaints management committee but i think its important we don't lose too much time in discussing it now. i would like to bring your valued attention to two projects which are transforming and indeed playing a pivotal role in improving universal access to health and education, and leave YOU to ponder on how you, too, can play a vital role in these effects. it takes one person to change things but it'll need all our collective efforts and support. Powerpoint Presentations.....ON First Presentation Mohamed Aden Sheikh Children Teaching Hospital, in the city of Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia. The Mohamed Aden Sheikh Children Teaching Hospital, in short MAS-CTH, is probably the biggest health project being carried out in Somalia since the beginning of the civil war in 1991. The Hospital will provide free health care to all children of Somalia and will be equipped with a multimedia classroom for training of local personnel. The MAS-CTH non-profit organization aims to support the hospital until a new generation of doctors and nurses is trained to the highest possible education level comparable to western countries, in respect of local rules and traditions. Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh (AUN) The hospital was an idea of Mohamed Aden Sheikh, a doctor trained in Rome and Health Minister in Somalia in the 70s and later accused of conspiring against the government of Siad Barre; for the latter reason Mohamed was imprisoned in solitary confinement for six years and later named prisoner of the year by Amnesty International. After his release, Mohamed Aden Sheikh moved to Italy to continue his political activities in favor of the Somali Diaspora. In 1999 he was elected town councilor in Turin. He died in December 2010 but is still known and appreciated for what he has accomplished during his lifetime. Mohamed wanted the Hospital to be built in Hargeisa in Somaliland to reward the peace efforts of local administrators, even though it was far away from the lands of the South where he was born and raised; he wanted the hospital to be free for everyone. http://www.mascthonlus.org/en ------------------------ Second Presentation United for Somali Students (USS) is a charity which aims to elevate the educational attainment of underprivileged Somali students in the Horn of Africa as well as in the UK within the Diaspora community. Our two current programmes are the `Gift of Education’; a scholarship programme due to be implemented in Somalia and `Engage’; a mentoring/tutoring service in London. Gift of Education We at USS believe that education is a fundamental human right and with our program, we hope to make this a reality for those in the Horn by helping to widen access to tertiary education. The Gift of Education’ programme provides the opportunity to academically excellent students, whose access to higher education is limited due to lack of funds, explicitly recruiting students from IDP camps and orphanages. Our scholarships will cover the cost of tuition at an average of $500 per annum. We aim to provide scholarships for 20 students at each of the following universities: 1) Amoud University 6) University of Hargeisa 2) Burao University 7) Nugaal University 3) Puntland State University 8) University of East Africa 4) Galkayo University 9) Mogadishu University 5) Benadir University 10) Kismayo University Each university has agreed to provide two additional places for orphans free of charge bringing the total from 200 to 220 students. Each student enrolled in the program is also expected to give back to the local community by holding literacy and numeracy classes for adults. The universities will facilitate these lessons. This will ensure the benefit is far reaching and has an immediate positive knock on effect on the local community in addition to the long term advantages of an educated populace. The selection process for the students is in many stages where the initial stages are undertaken by the universities and the final selection is done by USS. The first intake of students will be in September 2011 and there are three payment instalments for the academic year. `Engage’ Our other program is aimed at underprivileged Somali GCSE students in the UK, mainly from low-income households in London. We have just completed a full year pilot scheme in Acton, west London for the 2010/2011 academic year where we have held sessions every Sunday with an hour each for Mathematics, English and Science and a final hour dedicated to workshops including, interfaith, career pathways, spoken word poetry, debates and many others. We intend to expand to other Somali populated communities in London and in England in the future.....http://www.unitedforsomalistudents.com/ ---------- these efforts are restoring hope and much needed service delivery back to our people. its crucial we ask ourselves how, we, too, can contribute to these excellent efforts. SOL is a hub for like-minded, active and dedicated individuals. lets use our combined efforts to do similar efforts for the betterment of our people. your efforts don't have to be huge but supporting the establishment of SOL Advisory Body is a start. we can set up a small group, where we ALL have joint-ownership off and support key developmental projects like the two mentioned above by remitting money, mailing books, purchasing/procuring hospital equipment and SENDING it, to individuals on the ground in the Somali peninsula like Alpha, Abwaan, IBZ, JB and others. this is far more effective and reliable than the usual channels and will ensures absolute accountability to the SOL donors. our STRONG online community is smart, tech savvy, have access to influential people in the corridors of power in the WEST and here too on ground. through our joint efforts we could potentially make a HUGE difference to all OUR people. the internet is creating new dynamic and innovative ways to interact, to work together and it requires no infrastructure investment. SOLers are gaining greater access to information, have more opportunities to engage in public policy debates, and have an enhanced ability to undertake collective action.